Nepal

• Swindled man sent the amount to his Facebook pal for the treatment of his virtual friend

Kathmandu, June 26

Police have arrested a woman for allegedly swindling a youth of hefty cash on the pretext of getting the victim a beautiful bride.

According to Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Kalpana Basnet, 23, was traced and taken into custody by plainclothes cops on Sunday. Basnet, who hails from Shailung Rural Municipality-5 of Dolakha district, was residing in Balkot, Bhaktapur.

Basnet befriended Hari Bahadur Karki, 24, on Facebook a few months ago. Though Basnet and Karki never met each other until this case came to the fore, they used to chat for hours on messenger and talk on phone, almost every day. As Basnet knew about Karkifinancial status, she created a fake Facebook account in the name of Sangita, with profile picture of a beautiful woman. She then posing as Sangita, sent a friend request to him. Karki accepted the friend request. One day, Basnet told Karki, who also hails from Dolakha, that Sangita was a beautiful woman and she knew her very well. &Sangita became a topic of their telephonic conversation for many days. One day Basnet asked Karki if he was interested in marrying Sangita and Karkiresponse was positive,& a police official said. Karki was already in love with his virtual friend, Sangita. After a few weeks, Basnet informed Karki that Sangita was critically injured in a road accident, and had to be rushed to New Delhi for treatment. She also requested him to provide some money for her treatment. Saddened by the news, Karki decided to provide money to Sangita through Basnet.

He sent Rs 455,000 in installment to Basnet via wire for Sangitatreatment. &After receiving the cash, she told Karki that Sangita died while undergoing treatment,& according to the police officer. Suspicious about Basnetconduct, Karki lodged a complaint with the MPCD to probe into the incident and identify Kalpana. Police investigation established Basnet as a Facebook scammer and arrested her.

She has been handed over to Metropolitan Police Range for legal action under cyber crime and fraud. Police have not disclosed further details about Basnet and Karki.

Cheating, blackmailing, phishing, identity theft, hacking, spreading hatred and inciting violence, circulating lewd photos and videos and grooming are major forms of cybercrime often reported to the law enforcement agency. Any person involved in cybercrime is liable to Rs 100,000 in fine or five years in jail or both, as per the Electronic Transactions Act.

Police have appealed to social media users not to accept friend requests from strangers.

Accepting strangers not only gives way to the risk of identity theft, but also puts unsuspecting persons at the risk of being cheated.

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Kathmandu, June 26

The Supreme Court has rescheduled its hearing on the cases filed against the Public Service Commissionjob advertisement to recruit over 9,000 employees at local levels.

A division bench of justices Hari Krishna Karki and Ananda Mohan Bhattarai rescheduled the hearing for June 30, saying the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives, which has been named a defendant, is yet to receive notification about the case. The bench decided to send notice to the House panel before it could conduct hearing to decide whether or not the PSCjob advertisements should be halted.

Advocate Rajaram Ghimire had filed a petition seeking repeal of SAGGCdirectives to halt PSC job advert. Advocate Jagadev Chaudhary had filed the petition seeking to halt PSC job adverts, arguing that the advertisement violated principle of proportional inclusion.

PSC has said it failed to allot seats for all social clusters at local levels in its advert, mainly due to lack of seats to accommodate them.

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Kathmandu, June 26

The National Human Rights Commission has urged the government to initiate action against the perpetrators of torture.

In a press statement released by the rights body coinciding with the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture today, the NHRC said besides compensating the victims, the government had done very little to bring perpetrators to book.

Though some of the victims have been compensated by the government, perpetrators categorically pointed out by the NHRC have yet to be booked.

According to the NHRC, it has registered nearly 1,910 complaints related to torture. The rights body completed its inquiry into 1,000 complaints.

Of the complaints settled by the rights body, 179 cases are related to recommendations for compensation to the victims and legal action against the perpetrators.

Implementation of the recommendations made by the NHRC is not satisfactory in the case of perpetrators. &Therefore, we would like to take this day as an opportunity to urge the government to punish the perpetrators,& the statement read. Earlier, the NHRC warned that the culture of impunity had been institutionalised in the country as its recommendations to the government to take legal action against those involved in torture and incidents of human rights violation were not duly implemented.

NHRC said it had been monitoring and investigating the cases of torture since it came into being. Investigations and recommendations made by the rights body date back to the Maoist insurgency period. It is also monitoring the prisons and custody rooms for the protection of the right of prisoners.

The NHRC urged the government to upgrade existing amenities in prisons and guarantee basic human rights, including sanitation, room space, quality food and regular health check-ups of the inmates.

Prisons and custody rooms were packed with crimes suspects, beyond their holding capacity.

&The government still uses torture as its weapon to force suspects to confess crime. National and international laws consider torture as a crime. Therefore, it is illegal to torture a person under any excuse,& the statement read.

Torture in detention up by five per cent: Report

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Kathmandu, June 26

One of operation theatres of National Trauma Centre has been serving as a store room for the past two years.

The hospital used to provide surgery services in the room previously and now it has only four operation rooms, affecting service seekers.

If the room that has been turned into a store is brought into use, at least five more patients can benefit from surgeries. The hospital performs surgery on 25 patients in its four operation rooms, on a daily basis.

&Patients in need of knee joint replacement, hip joint replacement and those with multiple fractures complications could benefit if the room were brought into use,& said a source at the centre on condition of anonymity.

The centre is found to be dumping out of service machines in the room. It has also been storing a CT scan machine it received last year from National Academy of Medical Sciences in the same room.

&We turned the operation room into store room as the centre lacked space for storing old and unused machines,&said Pramod Kumar Yadav, medical superintendent at the centre, adding, &We are trying to resume regular health services in the room, at the earliest. We are shifting the machines and goods from the room to a larger room near the intensive care unit.&

Yadav also said the centre required additional experts if it were to provide services from the store turned operation room.

But a source at the centre said that it had adequate skilled staffers.

The centre provides services like burn and plastic surgery, ear nose and throat services, orthopaedics, neurosurgery and general surgery.

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